What games have the best 2d animation?

[KIWASABI]

Hey everybody,

 

What games do you guys think have the best 2d animation?

 

Some of the games that are on my list are:

 

Earthworm Jim

Battletoads (arcade version)

Metal Slug series

 

I'm interested in seeing what everybody comes up with!

 

-Adam

Edited March 7, 2009 by KIWASABI

[the maddestman]

Donkey Kong Country

[Shannon]

Prince of Persia

[2600Lives]

X-Men: Children Of The Atom. Seriously, look at Spiral closely sometime. It's SO unbelievably fluid. While the Marvel games got better as time went on, the animation seemed to suffer, as more and more characters were added and new gameplay features were introduced, but the original X-Men arcade was just BEAUTIFUL in it's animation.

[KIWASABI]

Good games to mention, guys. Donkey Kong Country definitely has amazing animation, although I'd still consider that 3D animation since it's pre-rendered 3D.

 

Games like Prince of Persia and Out of this World have amazing animation simply because their animation is rotoscoped. Ther art itself isn't amazing, but the movement sure is.

 

X-men Children of the Atom is a great one to mention as well. I was looking at youtube videos of Marvel vs Capcom before posting this, and I agree with you; the pressure to create more characters forced the animators to spend less time on the character animations for the more recent additions to the series. X-men Children of the Atom has highly detailed characters with very fluid animation; I'm a big fan.

[Math You]

King of Fighters 12 has some great hand drawn animation.

[the maddestman]

Good games to mention, guys. Donkey Kong Country definitely has amazing animation, although I'd still consider that 3D animation since it's pre-rendered 3D.

 

Games like Prince of Persia and Out of this World have amazing animation simply because their animation is rotoscoped. Ther art itself isn't amazing, but the movement sure is.

Fair enough, I guess it comes down to a personal definition of 2D vs 3D, while Donkey Kong Country was pre-rendered 3D, it was still 100% a 2D game in the gameplay. I'd class it as 2D personally, but can understand and appreciate that others may call it 3D and wouldn't argue.

 

And yes, how could i forget Out of this world (AKA Another World outside of the US), which was absolutely groundbreaking!

 

EDIT: Of course, I'm sure most people here would have seen this: http://www.atarimania.com/detail_soft.php?...amp;SOFT_ID=286

Edited March 7, 2009 by the maddestman

[Warriorisabouttodie]

Flashback, Out of this World, Blackthorn and the various Disney games like Alladin, Lion King, Mickey mouse games on both the SNES & Genesis have incredible 2d animation.

[STICH666]

Metal Slug 3

KoF 2002

Super Street Fighter II HD Remix

Prince of Persia

WarioLand: Shake it

[LS_Dracon]

Street fighter 3 followed close by Daraki Tenshi - The fallen angel (2d fighter)

[Warriorisabouttodie]

I didn't even consider any modern games, since when I think of impressive 2d Amiga, Genesis, SNES comes to mind... ummm The Viewtiful Joe series and Alien Homined for last gen consoles, New Super Mario Brothers for the DS... ummm Ninja Gaiden DS actually there are too many to list for the DS. Do isometric games count? The Baldurs Gate games on the PS2/XBOX are really nice looking.

 

The classics still are Flashback, Out of this world, Blackthorn, Alladin, Lion King and the mickey mouse games from the 16 bit era, but there are quite a few beautiful 2d games on modern systems, especially the Nintendo DS and even the GBA.

Edited March 8, 2009 by Warriorisabouttodie

[nonner242]

Metal Slug Series

KOF Series

Out of this World Series

Batman ROTJ (NES) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcrb3ExexxQ...feature=related

Shock Troopers II

Raiden II

Earthworm Jim 1 & 2

Alladin

Galactic Attack (Saturn) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsiFEo9ACcg...feature=related

Lion King

Prince of Persia

Castlevania SOTN

Mark of the Wolves

Batman the caped crusaider (C64)

Impossible Mission II (C64)

Street Fighter Alpha Series

Art of Fighting 3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjbKwh3mU-Y...feature=related

Mars Matrix

X-men COTA (Saturn)

Pulstar http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7OQW7B3sXQ

Tower Toppler (7800 or ST)

Batman & Robin (genesis)

EVERY SFX TRICK WAS USED AWESOME

Shadow of the Beast (Amiga)

Blazing Star

 

I could list all day.......

[KIWASABI]

Thanks for all the replies, guys! I was pretty blown away by Art of Fighting 3. Not only does it have great animation, it also has highly detailed backgrounds. Very cool!

[holein1]

raiden II and i will go ahead and say raiden iv will have the best animation.

Heads up, UFO is releasing Raiden IV in august.

[gamerz]

Flashback on the Genesis.

[Blues_Bloody]

Guardian Heroes for the Sega Saturn.

[shadow460]

Any 2D Saturn title.

[Reaperman]

I'll throw in a seconding of Mark of the Wolves

 

and also second kof12 and street fighter 3.

really fighting games seem to push the limits of 2d animation in the generations where they were present.

Edited June 23, 2009 by Reaperman

[brojamfootball]

Vectorman on Sega Genesis was cool.

[mbd30]

I was thinking Metal Slug series before I clicked. Such attention to detail. Those games are like works of art.

[the.golden.ax]

#3 Last Blade 2 Neo Geo

#2 Money Idol Exchanger Neo Geo

#1 Lunar Eternal Blue PSX

 

 

 

AX

[Ninjabba]

Samurai Sho0o0o0odown!!!! The first one's were already awesome, but sprites only got bigger and more animated when they leaped to the ps2.

 

Also, and this is imo the best worked out sprite based game around, Legend of Mana for the ps1.. every screen is a nice painting

Edited June 23, 2009 by Ninjabba

[Video]

I loved Odworld, which I think was still totally 2D, I know Skull Monkeys was 2D, though if you don't want to count DKcountry for prerendered 3D, that was escentually photographed stills of actual 3D models....

[4Ks]

Yoshi's Island and Mickey Mania, both for the Super Nintendo.

Edited June 23, 2009 by 4Ks

[mattyg]

Gex on the 3DO

 

Warioland : the shake dimension is just beautiful! 2D is not dead